Word quickly spread that Captain Wildt had confirmed the orders with his own eyes, and for nearly a whole day everyone from the officers down to the apprentice dragons maids were walking around in shock. That faded quickly into an extended burst of energy as the immense scope of their collective mission hit home. They had two weeks to be ready to sail.

The admiral was fierce in the face of the massive operation, and Agadart thought that part of his mood was due to the grim news that was coming regularly out of Watt, sometimes by dragon, occasionally by ship. She mostly saw him during his conferences with Worthan, where she was acknowledged but otherwise ignored while they went over supply lists and tried to reassure each other that Watt had a fighting chance against the emperor’s forces.

The first week flew by, but by the second week, tempers were fraying. The dragons, who were all being required to resume their walking forms for the trip, were particularly stressed. Agadart saw little of it, practically chained to her desk doing a crash course on dragon physique and the general culture of dragons on Watt. There were, apparently, some things one should never ever ask a Wattish dragon, such as “how big was your sibling clutch?” and “how old were you when you first took flight?”

Agadart thought that was all very silly, but Worthan assured her that doing so might get her bitten. The realization that their medical patients could bite her was an entirely new concept to her. When she expressed as much to Worthan, he simply laughed and walked away.

She was neck-deep in her studies when the door to the office flew open and Mistress Seraphinite stormed in. “Doctor Worthan!”

Agadart was stumbling to her feet before Mistress Seraphinite finished shouting. “He was called to the war room by Admiral Leonteinparre!” She shifted awkwardly for a moment, trying to get her body to stand at attention.

Mistress Seraphinite stared at her for a moment, her expression gone very blank but her eyes betraying her anger. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before speaking through clinched teeth. “This was the third time a dragon sent a maid screaming from the warrens. If they want their lairs cleaned or help with packing, they need to stop taking their frustrations out on my maids.”

Agadart nodded in agreement but could not think of anything to say. She had absolutely no authority over the dragons. She opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. “I can tell Doctor Worthan?” she offered.

“Tell whomever will listen. I cannot even get an audience with the admiral, and his consort—” She paused, took a deep breath, then started again. “His Matrica finds the situation hilarious.” Her expression was thunderous.

“He…he laughed at you?” Agadart frowned. She had thought Matrica Roki would take a more serious view of his duties.

“He chuckled, then excused himself from the room. I’m sure the very idea of dragon maids is funny to him, but we take our jobs seriously and we have an important role in the Dragon Corps.” She looked Agadart over with an unfriendly eye. “And everyone knows he will listen to you.”

Agadart, used to much finer stilettos from her time at court, managed to keep her own temper from flaring. She tilted her head. “I was unaware that anyone would carry more weight with the Matrica than the Mistress of the Maids, but I will bring it up whenever I have the opportunity of being in his audience again.”

Mistress Seraphinite’s eyes narrowed, but she did not stay to continue to battle with false politeness. Instead she nodded once and turned on her heel, leaving with as much vigor and noise as she had arrived with, slamming the door shut behind her.

Agadart rang for one of the ensigns assigned to Worthan and asked him to send for the Matrica. The boy gulped a few times but then dashed off. Finally, Agadart collapsed back into her chair, wondering unkindly if Mistress Seraphinite was purposely trying to make her life difficult.

She knew that was not the truth of it, even if she was certain the other woman did not like her very much due to her background.

Matrica Roki walked in without knocking while she was deep into wrestling with those thoughts. She started at the noise. “Does no one knock?” she asked, stomping to her feet.

He froze mid-stride, surprised by her outburst. “Maid Aegirine? You sent for me?”

She put her hands on her hips. “Of course I did no such thing. One does not send for the Matrica. One requests an audience. Do you think I was raised on a fruit wagon?”

He lowered his foot, a grin spreading across his face. “So you have been to Queen Theaedra’s court!”

“Is that your sole takeaway?”

“For now.” He nodded and motioned at the Bergère chairs by the window. “Shall we?”

She nodded with as much regality as she could muster and sat down across from him.

“What was the reason you requested an audience?” He sat in the chair casually, crossing one leg over another.

“I just had a visit from Mistress Seraphinite.”

He frowned, but waited for her to continue.

“It’s about the issue of the dragons being short-tempered with the dragon maids.”

“Oh. That.”

“Mani! It is one thing for them to snap and growl at each other, but remember that most of the dragon maids here are still apprentices! They are not—”

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He raised his hand to stop her, a slight smile on his lips. “That woman doesn’t waste the wind under her wings, does she? That happened only a few hours ago.”

It was Agadart’s turn to frown. “She said you laughed it off, but I admit that I am surprised you would take such a thing so lightly.”

He sighed. “Yes, I found it amusing, but that does not change the fact that I planned to bring it up with my…with Admiral Leonteinparre.”

Agadart cleared her throat, embarrassed at overreacting. “Ah. Well, good! Then I suppose I sent for you for no reason at all.”

He smiled and relaxed further in the chair. “Believe me, I’m glad to take any excuse to get away from the madness. And your defense of your fellow Dragon Maids Corps members was very, ah, queenly.”

She rolled her eyes. “That means something different in Kaaltendt than what you intend.”

He shrugged. “Perhaps I mean it both ways.” He let out a long breath. “In any case, everyone is on edge, humans and dragons alike, and for all the same reasons. I doubt there will be any calming down at this point. From here on out, our circumstances are bound to just get worse.”

Agadart decided the conversation was not going to improve, so she got up and brought over a jug of wine from the sideboard and poured for both of them before sitting down again. “Doctor Worthan won’t tell me specifics, but what little he shares sounds grim. Are things really that bad on the front?”

“Word is the southern coast of the island was decimated in the first wave of attacks,” he said softly, his expression tight. “The Leonteinparre estates are west of the location, but the duke knows it is probable that friends and family have fallen.” Mani leaned back in his chair again, sipping his glass of wine thoughtfully.

“Have you never been to the Isle of Watt?” Agadart asked. She was fairly sure Mani had never left Kaaltendt since his contract to the admiral had been signed, but the way Mani talked about the place made her think he knew it well.

He seemed to pick up on her thoughts. “No, I have never been, and before Rodgardae I never intended to go. It sounded cold and rocky and forbidding—much like Endestern itself.” He gave a small laugh at that, and Agadart smiled in return. “But I knew when I contracted with a duke of Watt that my life would end up there, eventually. Maybe not as soon as it is, but nonetheless it became an inevitability. And I shall have to trip over the social graces there as nimbly as I do here…which is to say, not at all. However, I took it upon myself after our commitment ceremony to study my lord’s homeland. I’ve read histories, and studied the geography. Rodgardae has shown me the map of his family’s holdings.” He sighed heavily, returning to his wine.

“And it is even further from Akanata than Kaaltendt is,” Agadart said softly. As hard as it had been for her to travel across the wide continent to Endestern, it did not compare with leaving her native land entirely.

“Yes. My mother swore never to visit me there, claiming her wings would freeze.” Mani laughed.

Agadart paused. “I had no idea your mother is a dragon.”

Mani’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Why yes, she is. My father, no; but her and my brothers are all fliers. I was born the human way, and have no desire to ride the winds. I am happy being simply human, but I am very used to living deep in the hearth of a dragon clutch. It is common in Akanata, as we have as many dragons as humans among our population. So, the company of Rodgardae, whom so many in Kaaltendt found odd, was familiar to me.”

Agadart played with the rim of her glass before speaking. Mani let her have her time, realizing that she was preparing to share something important. With a deep breath she spoke. “My uncle is a dragon.”

He blinked at her, then smiled. “How wonderful! Where is he stationed?”

She shook her head. “No, you don’t understand. For us, for my father and our family, it is something of a shame. A dragon in the family! No, here in Kaaltendt, that is not a good thing. It is something I have shared with almost no one who did not already know.”

Mani frowned. “I have seen this attitude, but I was not aware it was so ingrained.”

“He was firstborn, set to take the title, but being a dragon, there was question of his suitability. So he left to become a soldier of fortune. Last my father received word, my uncle had traveled over the desert wastes to become a liege of a queen of the Westlands. That was some time ago.”

“Throwing away family for sake of human pride? Perhaps I’m not so upset to leave Kaaltendt as I profess.” His voice held scorn and displeasure, but Agadart could not bring herself to answer it. He looked at her for a long moment. “It does explain your natural affinity for working in the aerie, and handling the medicine. You have dragon in your blood.”

She sat up straight. A comment like that in polite society was no less than a slap in the face, and it was hard for her to counter her emotional reaction.

Mani saw it and held up a hand in supplication. “Among my people, it is a compliment. Forgive me.” He didn’t sound too regretful, but she knew it was his nature to be angry rather than morose about such things.

She allowed herself to slump a little. “I know. Working here has been…honestly, I thought it would be a trial. My life has taken some unfortunate turns, and I wish I could have simply hidden away at my father’s estates. But I was sent as far from that world as possible. I was prepared to accept the hard and unpleasant work and lack of luxuries, but what I found was, for a moment, much greater than that. The work was hard, but fulfilling in its simplicity. I liked the dragons, even. I…I thought I could have a home in the corps.” She looked out the window.

“I see you sometimes,” Mani said softly, startling Agadart out of her reverie. She stared at him, wondering what he possibly meant. He smiled. “Knowing you are dragonkin, it makes sense now, the way you watch them longingly when they fly out.” He leaned over and put his hand on her knee, gently, as a lover might, but a chill went down her spine in a way never inspired by her former husband. “You watch them, craning your neck, almost aching to follow.”

Agadart looked up into his eyes and lost herself, gazing at him in wonder. He was handsome, she had always known that, but he was so close she could feel the warmth of his skin and it almost burned through her skirts where he touched her.

The door slammed open, Admiral Leonteinparre walking in and then stopping dead to see them in such an intimate moment. Agadart knocked the side table as she jumped up, catching it before it fell over, grateful that the wine bottle was further away. As she frantically tried to compose herself, Mani simply leaned back in his chair, his legs stretched out, looking like a negligent and indulgent prince as he held his wine, his eyes darkly focused on the admiral.

“If you wish to oversee the packing of our quarters, now is the time to present yourself.” The admiral’s tone and posture were stiff as he stared down at his consort.

“I’ll be along shortly.” Mani sipped from his glass, his eyes never leaving their prey.

“I’ll escort you.” The admiral’s jaw actually twitched.

“I am needed to assist Doctor Worthan,” Agadart clipped and headed for the door, but stopped when the admiral stepped into her path.

She squared her shoulders and looked up at him, expecting the worst of his temper — jealous men were rarely soft-spoken. Instead he just stared at her with an open curiosity. Clearly, his anger was reserved for his consort, and Agadart was perfectly at peace with that for the moment. She bowed when it became clear he had nothing to say, and then left.

She knew this would spell the end of her tutoring Mani on the ways of Kaaltendt society, but with their sea journey beginning the following day, chances were slim he would ever need to use that knowledge again…because chances were slim that any of them would return to the cliffs of Endestern, or Kaaltendt itself.